Harvard Crimson (19-7, 8-3 Ivy) at Cornell Big Red (6-18, 3-8 Ivy)

Feb. 28, 2020 • 7:00 p.m.
Ithaca, N.Y. • Newman Arena (4,473)
Cornell leads the all-time series 95-83
Harvard won the last meeting 85-63 on Feb. 14, 2020 in Cambridge, Mass.

Game Links 
Watch Live • Live Stats • Purchase Tickets
Cornell Game Notes • Harvard Game Notes
Cornell Roster • Cornell Schedule & Results • Cornell Stats
Harvard Roster • Harvard Schedule & Results • Harvard Stats

STORYLINES
• Cornell will celebrate its three seniors on a rare Leap Year game against Harvard on Saturday, Feb. 29 at 6 p.m. at Newman Arena.
• The contest will be broadcast on ESPN+ with Dave Kudgus and Eric Taylor '05 on the call.
• The Big Red will honor seniors Noah Gear, Thurston McCarty and captain Josh Warren prior to Saturday's game.
• Gear joined the team as a walk-on this spring and has contributed energy and defense in practice and games. He scored 13 points and grabbed three rebounds at Harvard and has made 78 percent of his field goal attempts while playing in seven games.
• McCarty is a two-year letter winner who has played in 36 contests (six starts) after joining the Big Red as a junior college transfer. He notched 17 points at Bryant and 11 points, six rebounds and three blocks in the season-opening win over Binghamton.
• A two-year starter and four-year letter winner, Warren ranks in the top 20 in school history in career field goal percentage, blocked shots and assists. He has been a key member of two postseason teams and has seen action in 112 career games – good for fourth-most of any player in Cornell history.
• It will be just the 10th time the Big Red has played on Leap Year, going 4-5 in those previous games — the last being a 75-59 win over Dartmouth in 2008.

ABOUT HARVARD:
• Harvard is 19-7 overall (8-3 Ivy) and enters Saturday with five consecutive wins after a 77-69 victory at Columbia on Friday night.
• The Crimson won eight consecutive games earlier this season and own wins over Texas A&M, UMass, Cal, San Francisco and Yale.
• Sophomore Noah Kirkwood (12.2 ppg., 3.8 rpg., 2.4 apg., 1.1 spg.) and Chris Lewis (11.6 ppg., 6.2 rpg., 1.6 bpg.) are the lone double figure scorers, though six other players are posting at least 5.8 points per outing.
• Bryce Aiken would be the team's leading scorer (16.7 ppg.), but has missed 18 games due to injury.
• The Crimson has done most of its best work on the defensive end, allowing opponents to shoot just .411 from the floor while outrebounding opponents by 5.3 per game and blocking a league-best 5.3 shots.
• Harvard's Tommy Amaker is the winningest coach in school history with 245 wins on the Crimson bench (421 overall) and has claimed seven Ivy championships with four NCAA Tournament appearances.

SERIES HISTORY VS. HARVARD:
Overall: Cornell leads 95-83
In Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell leads 50-37
Current Streak: Harvard, 1 game
Last Meeting: Harvard won 85-63, 2/14/20 in Cambridge, Mass.
Earl vs. Harvard: 2-5
Series Notes: Series dates back to the 1901-02 season • Harvard had won six straight meetings before the Big Red's season sweep last year • Cornell won two consecutive prior to that stretch, but that came on the heels of nine consecutive Crimson wins

A WIN OVER HARVARD WOULD:
• make the Big Red's overall record stand at 7-18 on the season.
• improve to 4-8 in Ivy League play.
• give Cornell a 6-3 record at home in 2020.
• make Cornell 5-5 all-time on Feb. 29 — Leap Year.
• extend the Big Red's lead in the all-time series to 96-83.
• give Cornell three wins in its last four meetings with the Crimson.
• split the season series between the teams.
• be the 1,276th in program history (1,275-1,458 in 119 seasons, .467).

LAST TIME OUT:
• Ian Sistare and Aaryn Rai combined to hit 15-of-18 shots and Dartmouth made 56 percent from the floor overall as Dartmouth completed a season sweep of Cornell with an 82-70 victory at Newman Arena. 
• Terrance McBride kept his hot hand with 20 points to go along with four assists and Bryan Knapp tied a career high with 17 along with three helpers as Cornell shot 49 percent overall and turned the ball over just six times to 13 assists. 
• Kobe Dickson had 10 points and five rebounds for his second consecutive double figure scoring game.
• Sistare hit 8-of-10 shots overall and 6-of-8 from 3-point range for a career high 25 points, while Rai connected on 7-of-8 baskets for 18 points. 
• Chris Knight posted 17 points, 13 rebounds and five assists in the win.

LAST TIME VS. HARVARD:
• Harvard jumped out to a 12-0 lead and the Crimson defense did the rest in an 85-63 victory over Cornell at Lavietes Pavilion. 
• Cornell shot just 15 percent in the first half and made 1-of-12 3-pointers in the first 20 minutes as the home team raced out to a 42-15 edge. The Big Red shot 
• Jimmy Boeheim had a game-high 17 points and added six rebounds, while senior Noah Gear had 13 on 5-6 shooting in just eight minutes of action. 
• Harvard had four players reach double figures with Chris Ledlum posting a 15-point, 10-rebound double-double in just 17 minutes of action. 
• Chris Lewis and Danilo Djericic scored 13 apiece and Noah Kirkwood added 10 in the win. 

NOTES TO KNOW:
• Junior Bryan Knapp, who reached double figures in scoring once in his first 53 career games, has now hit for at least 10 points in eight of his last 10 (averaging 10.4 ppg. over that span).
• Knapp is averaging 15.7 points, 3.3 assists, 2.7 rebounds and 1.7 steals over his last three games.
• Junior Terrance McBride is posting 20.3 ppg., 3.0 rpg. and 2.5 apg. on .612 shooting (30-of-49) over the last four games.
• After shooting .402 from the floor (209-520) and .257 from 3-point range (57-of-222) over the first nine contests, the Big Red has connected on .456 shooting overall (381-of-835) and .347 beyond the arc (111-of-320), respectively, over the last 15 outings.
• The Big Red has lost three games by a single point, five by a single possession, six by four points or less and eight by single digits.
• Cornell has hit a 3-pointer in 884 consecutive games (12th-longest streak in Division I) dating back to a contest against Denison in the 1988-89 season opener (0-for-2). Since the 3-point shot came into effect in NCAA play during the 1986-87 season, the Big Red has hit at least one shot behind the arc in 930 of 934 games (6,089 3-pointers over that span).

UP NEXT: VS. PENN
• The Big Red closes out the regular season with the always treacherous Penn-Princeton road trip starting with a rematch against the Quakers on Friday, March 6 at 7 p.m. at the Palestra.
• The contest will be broadcast on ESPN+.
• Cornell will attempt to split the season series for the second straight season after a stretch where the Quakers won 13 of 14 meetings between the two programs.